Paving-block for street-railroad beds



(No Model.)

A. J. M-OXHAM.

PAVING BLOCK FOR STREETIRAILROAD BEDS.

Patented Apr. 5, 1887.

. X/z'i'nesses fnvenio N. PETERS. Phnto-Liflwgraphcr. Washinglon, 0.6.

' UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR J. MOXHAM, QF JO HNSTOWVN, PENNSYLVANIA.

PAVING-BLOCK FOR STREET-RAILROAD BEDS.

sPncIr-mA-rrorr forming part of Letters Patent No. 360,780, dated April 5, las-7.

Application filed January 6, 1887.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR J .-1\-IOXHAM, of J ohnstown, in the county of Oambria and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Paving-Blocks for Street-Railroad Beds, which invention or improvement is fully set forth and illustrated in the following specification and accompanying drawings.

The object of thisinvention is to supply paving-blocks shaped to the sides of girderrails in place of the ordinary loose material or ballast usually rammed into the pockets formed between the paving and the sides of such rails.

The invention will first be particularly de scribed, and then specifically set forth in the claim.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows in perspective a rail mounted on a chair and having four paving-blocks shaped and fitted to its sides. Fig. 2 shows in perspective one of the larger of the blocks shown in Fig. 1 detached.

In said figures the several letters marked thereon indicate parts described as follows:

A is the rail; B B, shorter blocks; 0 0, longer blocks; D, recess in block for receiving lower flange of rail on one side; E, chair, (in dotted 'lines;) F, angle formed by blocks B and G breaking joints.

G indicates in dotted lines the boundary of the cored spaces in the blocks when they are cored out, as may be done if the blocks are made of molded material.

H shows the curved edge of the block, which facilitates the turning off of the wheels of street-wagons or other vehicles; J, joint between opposite blocks abutting each other under the foot or lower flange of the rail; K, portion of block above the recess D, which bears on the top of the lower flange of the rail and against its web.

In the girder-rail system as now developed for street-railroads it has been found difficult in some cases to preserve surface alignment of the pavement immediately adjoining the rails. The side pockets of the rails hold firmly the ballast with which the interstices of the 7 Serial No. 223,581. .(No model.)

pavingstones are filled when that ballast is of good character, such as gravel; but if such ballast be of sand or other easily-flowing material it becomes difficult to hold it within said pockets, and empty space therein results. Under similar conditions such ballast is more or less yielding to the paving-blocks themselves, and sometimes results in the blocks working down under the edges of the rails, making the paving very faulty, and at the very place where the paving, being immediately alongside of the rails, is more subject to surface wear or destruction than at all other parts of the street, owing to the frequent turning off the track of wagons and other street vehicles. Two sources of deterioration or destruction of surface alignment are thus coacting at the same place.

By the use of the specially-fitted pavingblocks herein described it will be observed that a bearing is provided against the web and upper part of the lower flange or flanges of the rail. Said bearing may also be re-enforced by causing; the opposite paving-blocks to abut each other under the rails, as shown'in Fig. l at J. The inertia of the surrounding mass of ballast beneath the rail being very great, such abutting thereunder will occur at a good place for re-enforcement. This abutting, however, I do not regard as essential to the invention. The curved edges H of the paving-blocks are of great advantage, for by assisting the wheels of street-vehicles to turn off the rails of the track a saving of wear and tear of both paving and vehicle-axles is effected. When said paving is made of material that can be molded, it would be a matter of economy to core out the blocks, as shown at G in the drawings, or with openings to the sides or faces of the blocks opposite their rail-fitting faces. Such coring outwill reduce the weights of the blocks, and thus save material as well as freight charges of shipment.

I am aware that paving-blocks have heretofore been made of different lengths or widths for the purpose of breaking joints, and I neither claim such differences in size of blocks nor confine myself to the use of such; neither do I confine myself to any special material suitable for such blocks, whether cut or or molded material, provided with sides 01 1110 ed.

Having thus fully described my said improvemeut in paving-blocks, as of my inven- 5 t-iou I claim As new articles of manufacture, pavingblocks for street i'ailrond beds, of either cut faces shaped to fit into pockets of girder-rails, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

ARTHUR J. MOXHAM. \Vi tnesses:

G. R. POWELL, .W. E. HOOPES. 

